dodsworth in new york

"Mornin," said Dodsworth.The duck just stared at him.. The duck started singing, "Fluffypancakes in the air.Pancakes, pancakes everywhere!" "Oh no," said Dodsworth.. "You're here bright

Dodsworth in

New York

Tim Egan

DODSWORTH IN NEW YORK

Written and illustrated by

uncle, Don.

Copyright © 2007 by Tim Egan

All rights reserved For informationabout permission to reproduce

selectionsfrom this book, write to

Permissions, Houghton Mifflin

Dodsworth in New York/written and

illustrated by Tim Egan

p cm

Summary: When Dodsworth sets

out for adventure, including a stop

in NewYork City before going to Paris,London, and beyond, he does not

expect acrazy duck to stow away in hissuitcase and lead him on a merry

chase

ISBN-13: 978-0-618-77708-2

(hardcover)ISBN-10: 0-618-77708-3

(hardcover)[1 Voyages and travels—Fiction 2.New York (N.Y.)—Fiction 3 Ducks

—Fiction 4 Adventure and

adventurers—Fiction.] I Title

PZ7.E2815Dod 2007

[E]—dc222006034522Printed in Singapore

TWP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CHAPTER ONE

BREAKFAST

Dodsworth wanted adventure

He wanted to fly in a plane

He wanted to sail on a ship

He wanted to see the world

But first, he wanted breakfast.

He went to his favorite place,

Dodsworth walked into the café.

It was very early, so there wasnobody around

Nobody, that is, but Hodges' duck.Hodges' duck was crazy

"Mornin," said Dodsworth.

The duck just stared at him

"May I please have some

pancakes?" asked Dodsworth

The duck turned and jumped onto astool

The duck started singing, "Fluffypancakes in the air.

Pancakes, pancakes everywhere!"

"Oh no," said Dodsworth

The duck flew behind the counter

He started throwing pancakes atDodsworth

Dodsworth tried to catch thepancakes.

He caught three out of seven

Hodges ran out from the kitchen.

He grabbed the duck

"Sorry about that, Dodsworth," hesaid "You're here bright and

early."

"Yep," said Dodsworth, "I'm going

on an adventure."

"Where to?" asked Hodges

"New York Paris London Youname it," said Dodsworth

"Sounds exciting," said Hodges.The duck said nothing.

Dodsworth finished his breakfast.

He bid farewell to Hodges

Hodges wished him well

Dodsworth tipped his hat andpedaled away

CHAPTER TWO

THE TRAIN

Dodsworth arrived at the train

station

He bought a ticket to New York

From there he would sail across theocean

He was very excited

The train started chugging along,over hills and under bridges,

through fields and forests

It was the start of a grand

adventure

Two hours later, Dodsworth went toopen his trunk.

As he lifted the lid, the duck

"What are you doing here?!" heshouted.

"Looking for excitement," said theduck

"Where are we going?" he asked.Dodsworth was not happy

"WE are not going anywhere!" heshouted.

"I'M going on an adventure! Alone!

YOU are going back on the nexttrain!"

The duck just looked out the

window

"This is fun," he said

Dodsworth went up to the

Dodsworth was very upset

He marched back to his room

The duck had taken all of

Dodsworth's clothes out of thetrunk

He was lying on them

"This is the life," he said

Dodsworth was very angry

"Get off my clothes!" he shouted.

"Look at the mess you made!"

"Whoa," said the duck, "calm downthere, partner."

"I will not calm down!" shoutedDodsworth "And I am not yourpartner!"

CHAPTER THREE

NEW YORK CITY

The next morning, the train pulledinto New York City

Dodsworth bought a ticket for theduck to go home

He turned to give the duck theticket

He saw the duck getting on thesubway.

Again, Dodsworth was very mad

"Fine!" he shouted "Good luck toyou!"

He started walking to the boatyard

"Paris, here I come," he grumbled

He walked for a mile, but then hestopped.

He knew how worried Hodges mustbe

He knew he had to find the duck

"All I wanted was a simple littleadventure," he said

He walked around New York City allday.

Across the Brooklyn Bridge

Up to Yankee Stadium and down toWall Street

There was no sign of the duck, butDodsworth was amazed at the giantbuildings

He headed over to Washington

Square

There were a lot of ducks and theyall looked the same

A lady was feeding them bread.

Only one duck was throwing breadback at the lady

"Aha!" shouted Dodsworth

He chased the duck down to theHudson River, but the duck gotaway again.

Dodsworth sat and watched theboats for a while

He thought he saw the duck on one

of the boats

"Why would a duck take a boat?"

he wondered

The boat was going to the Statue ofLiberty.

Dodsworth took the next boat

He arrived at the statue and

climbed to the top

There was no sign of the duck

anywhere

There was, however, a great view

of the city

That night, Dodsworth checked into

a hotel near Central Park

He kept trying to call Hodges onthe phone.

Still no answer

At one point, he thought he saw theduck in the park

It was too dark to tell for sure

In the morning, he walked to a

diner across from the park

He ordered pancakes

They were not as good as Hodges'

Not even close.

Dodsworth watched as the parkcame to life.

A band started playing music.Folks started flying a kite

A magician began doing tricks

"I shall now pull a rabbit from myhat," said the magician

He pulled out the duck instead

"Aha!" screamed Dodsworth.The duck took off.

Dodsworth tried to catch the duckall day.

He chased him up to Park Avenue

Even though he couldn't find theduck, Dodsworth liked how fancyeveryone was dressed

Later, he saw the duck go into theMuseum of Modern Art

Dodsworth searched and searched,

anywhere in the museum, either.

That evening, he spotted the duckwalking into Radio City Music Hall.

A movie was playing, so it wasreally dark

Since Dodsworth couldn't see theduck, he decided to just enjoy themovie

After a while, somebody startedthrowing popcorn at the screen.Dodsworth knew who the

The duck ran out and jumped onto

a bus

Dodsworth jumped into a taxicab

"Follow that duck!" he said

The taxi followed the duck

The bus went to Coney Island.

Dodsworth watched the duck get onthe Ferris wheel

He waited until just the right

second

"Gotcha!" he said as he grabbedthe duck "Hey," said the duck,

"how's it going?"

You could have been lost forever."

"Sorry," said the duck

The duck lowered his head

Dodsworth put his hand on theduck

"Oh, it's all right," he said "Don't

be sad."

The duck started snoring

He was sound asleep

Dodsworth went to a phone booth.

He called Hodges again

"Hello?" said Hodges

He sounded sad

"Hodges!" shouted Dodsworth.

"I've got the duck! He's with me!"Hodges screamed

"That crazy duck! I've been worriedsick!"

"Sorry he ruined your adventure,"said Hodges.

"Ruined it? He was the adventure,"said Dodsworth

They both laughed

"We'll head home on the next

train," said Dodsworth

Dodsworth went back to the duck

To his great dismay, the duck wasgone again

Dodsworth looked out the window.The duck was getting on a boat.

Dodsworth ran and jumped on theboat.

The boat started sailing away

"Hurry!" said Dodsworth "Let'sswim back to shore!"

"No can do," said the duck "I can'tswim."

"What?!" shouted Dodsworth.

"You're a duck!"

"Sorry," said the duck "Never

learned how to swim."

The city became farther and fartheraway

Dodsworth saw that the boat wasgoing to Paris

He went to the phone and calledHodges again.

"Uh, hey," he said "Listen

Everything is fine The duck is stillwith me, but, well, it might be alittle longer than we thought."